Court rejects Montenegro's request to remove Chega poster

The Lisbon District Court has rejected Luís Montenegro's request to remove the Chega posters in which the Prime Minister appears alongside former Socialist Government leader José Sócrates, associated with the issue of corruption.

The Judicial Court of the District of Lisbon rejected the precautionary measure presented by the Prime Minister because “the right to freedom of expression” was at stake.

According to the decision, “given this context of political dispute and public debate” and in which “the choice of political decision-makers” is at stake – Luís Montenegro as candidate and leader of a political party and Chega as a competing political party – it is necessary to conclude, “because the exercise of the right to freedom of expression is at stake, due to the absence of illegality and the non-prevalence of the rights invoked” by the current leader of the Executive.

According to the Lusa news agency, the court also considers that the posters do not directly associate Luís Montenegro, who is also a candidate for the AD (PSD/CDS) in the legislative elections, with the “practice of any act likely to constitute the crime of corruption”, “nor does it state that he is corrupt”.

This is despite the fact that it contains the image “of a former prime minister who, despite being a defendant in a criminal case, benefits from the presumption of innocence”, the decision recalls.

“The phrase on the posters – 50 years of corruption” -, followed by “it is time to say enough” and “Vote Enough”, also does not authorize the conclusion that the defendant directly attributes to the claimant the practice of any unlawful act, given that, naturally, none of those portrayed, due to the length of time they have held political office, could be responsible for the association that is made between corruption and the years of democracy”, reads the decision.

The court also understands that in the posters Chega associates Luís Montenegro, as leader of a party, “with corruption”, but this association, although displeasing to the Prime Minister, “does not contain any imputation of criminal acts, but rather a value judgment regarding the political responsibility of those who led a government, in a democracy”.

“The message expressed in the posters — and the value judgment it contains — arises as a result of a political party, in the context of political dispute and public controversy, has a clear political intention, as it targets the action of other political parties and the image of the applicant, 'actor in public life', appears as the leader of a party and candidate in elections”, the court also states.